GRAPES AT CINCINNATI G3 



grapes as in gold dust, Jerseyman though 1 am, I shall 

 be more gratified to receive a grape cutting than the 

 largest Lump of gold thai region has ever produced." 

 In L841, In' sent ,i few bottles of wine, made in his own 

 vineyards, to London "for distribution among the Eng- 

 lish horticulturists." This wine was two years old, and 

 was made of "the pure juice of an American grape." 

 At that time, Mr. Longworth had forty acres in grapes, 

 and he cultivated "American grapes only, with one 

 exception, and that was sent me as a native." 



This vine-growing spread until, in 1859, <'ist declares 

 that "the number of acres in vineyard culture within 

 twenty miles around Cincinnati, Is now estimated at two 

 thousand. An average yield for ,-i series of years, is 

 supposed to '"• two hundred gallons to the acre, which 

 is aliont the average for France and Germany." Long- 

 worth wrote, in 1849, that "our vineyards may have 

 produced 800, ami possibly 1,000 gallons on an acre, 

 lmt no vineyard has averaged 300 gallons for ten years." 

 The wine was worth, at the press, from one dollar to a 

 dollar ami twenty-five cents a gallon, and twenty-five 

 eents a gallon more when secured al the ••'•liars of the 

 vintners. The same authority, Cist, in "Cincinnati in 

 1859," speaks of the rise of grape -planting in Tennes- 

 see, Georgia, Alabama, and the Carolinas, and says that 

 "foe the Last three or four years past, the sales of 

 grape roots and cuttings in Cincinnati, for the South 

 ami Southwest, have averaged about two hundred 

 thousand roots ami tour hundred thousand cuttings 

 annually, ami principally of the Catawba grape." 



Longworth is called l>j K •' . Hooper "the father of 



American grape culture." Robert Buchanan writes, in 



that "to Mr. Longworth, more than to an\ other 



